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Sunlight

amarryat

Android Enthusiast
Last week we were on vacation at the beach. A friend has an AT&T Windows phone made by HTC. I have my Incredible 2, and my wife has her iPhone 4. We're all cupping our hands to see the displays which is still a struggle. Then my wife takes out her Verizon Blackberry (Tour? Bold?, not sure what it is but it's less than a year old), and I can read the email from 5 feet away. Easy to see in direct sunlight. Why can't our phones use the same display technology that RIM uses?
 
Every display technology has it's trade offs. My wife's Samsung GSII i(Super AMOLED+) is much better in direct sunlight than my LCD based Evo. AFAIK, BB uses TFT LED's, the most common LCD screen technology available. A non touch screen device will have a layer advantage over a touch screen, which might explain the better performance. BB's generally get better battery life than other smartphones mainly because they do less. Maybe that allows BB's designers to ramp up the back light more in those situations? Remember, though she may have been able to see her phone's display clearer on the beach, she still has a Blackberry at the end of the day!
 
BB's generally get better battery life than other smartphones mainly because they do less.

Remember, though she may have been able to see her phone's display clearer on the beach, she still has a Blackberry at the end of the day!

And an iPhone 4, which has a nice bright LCD. But is still almost impossible to read in direct sunlight. It didn't appear to me that it was because the Blackberry brightness cranked itself way up. It almost appeared as if the sun was reflecting off the back of the display making it easy to see.

I don't think the Blackberry battery advantage is because it does less. I think it really has to do with everything being "push". The iPhone definitely also has better battery life, and I think the Windows Phone also has better battery life than my Android - and the Incredible 2 has good battery life for an Android phone! Especially compared to my first which was the Incredible 1. And that is also the reason I do not want to get an LTE phone at this point.
 
My wife got frustrated with the glare and she now uses an anti-glare screen protector. I tried this but I did not like the "rainbow" effect it gave. Might be something to try.
 
NuShield has been getting into the Android market of late. The U.S. military uses them for various display screens outdoors, including laptops and various global/targeting positioning screens, etc.
 
And an iPhone 4, which has a nice bright LCD. But is still almost impossible to read in direct sunlight. It didn't appear to me that it was because the Blackberry brightness cranked itself way up. It almost appeared as if the sun was reflecting off the back of the display making it easy to see.

I don't think the Blackberry battery advantage is because it does less. I think it really has to do with everything being "push". The iPhone definitely also has better battery life, and I think the Windows Phone also has better battery life than my Android - and the Incredible 2 has good battery life for an Android phone! Especially compared to my first which was the Incredible 1. And that is also the reason I do not want to get an LTE phone at this point.

Blackberry's battery life advantage has everything to do with specs. They have slower processors, smaller screens, etc. Slap a 4" screen on a Blackberry and give it a 1GHz processor, and see what happens to its battery life. Also, remember how many fewer apps that there are for Blackberry. I had Blackberrys until I switched to my Inc2 last June, and I use my Inc2 much more, simply because I can do much more.
 
Blackberry's battery life advantage has everything to do with specs. They have slower processors, smaller screens, etc. Slap a 4" screen on a Blackberry and give it a 1GHz processor, and see what happens to its battery life. Also, remember how many fewer apps that there are for Blackberry. I had Blackberrys until I switched to my Inc2 last June, and I use my Inc2 much more, simply because I can do much more.

The Torch has a 3.7 inch screen and a 1.2Gb chip.

I don't know about the battery life, though.
 
The Torch has a 3.7 inch screen and a 1.2Gb chip.

I don't know about the battery life, though.

Based on user feedback, battery life on the Torch seems to be equivalent to or slightly worse than my Inc2. Most people seem to report that they can make it from midnight after taking the phone off the charger in the morning. That seems on par with most similarly spec's phones running Android.

My Storm 2 could go 2 days, but it had a 3.25" screen and a 600MHz processor.
 
NuShield has been getting into the Android market of late. The U.S. military uses them for various display screens outdoors, including laptops and various global/targeting positioning screens, etc.


Do the guys on the right look like they're having an easy time seeing their screens :p
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I had to laugh when this was the first thing I saw after googling NuShield.

They should really pick a different pic.

Anyone actually tried these?
 
Do the guys on the right look like they're having an easy time seeing their screens :p
1.jpg


I had to laugh when this was the first thing I saw after googling NuShield.

They should really pick a different pic.

Anyone actually tried these?

..lol, I noticed that too, as I went to their home page. Then I noticed that he's trying to type; probably glare in the desert sun coming off his keyboard and laptop case. ;)
 
..lol, I noticed that too, as I went to their home page. Then I noticed that he's trying to type; probably glare in the desert sun coming off his keyboard and laptop case. ;)

Yeah, I suppose you can even see in the photo how much dust collects there on those 'puters. No screen protector can stop the glare of the desert dandruff if it's coating everything.
 
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